[sane-devel] Is click-through license needed for xsane?

[Kevin Dalley]

Could you explain the reason for the click-through license on xsane?
On the Debian distribution of xsane, some users have complained about
the annoyance of having a click-through GPL license.

Let me quote from Jason McCarty's email:


Note that the GPL explicitly allows for running the program without
agreeing to the license: "The act of running the Program is not restricted
[by the license]..." (clause 0). Anyway, a click-through is totally
unnecessary for the GPL. You implicitly accept it when you commit any of
the activities covered by it, because otherwise you'd be violating
copyright.


I'm sorry for wasting your time with this silly stuff, but click-throughs
irk the hell out of me (even though I accept the GPL anyway) and I
genuinely believe that this situation goes against that part of the spirit
of the GPL (the part that states you don't have to accept the license to
use the software).


The enforceability if GPL is discussed in:


http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/enforcing-gpl.html


I believe that the GPL allows me to rewrite xsane to remove the
click-through license, but I would like to have some discussion before
making such a decision.

-- 
Kevin Dalley
kevind at rahul.net